Their teammates had long since retreated to the cocoon of the locker room. They lingered. They saw the Greek players take off their jerseys and wave them over their heads, saw the impassioned hugs, saw them link arms and dance around the center circle. They stood there and let it burn into their memories.

It was September 2006 in Saitama, Japan, the semifinals of the World Basketball Championships. Team USA had led by 12. Lost by six.

“Even though we lost in ’06, we knew that we had started something,” Anthony said. “It was a bad feeling to see that and be a part of that. We got back to the States and (James) called me and asked me, ‘Are you locked in?’ And I said, ‘I’m locked in.’”

This is how it has to be now.

The United States won its second straight Olympic gold medal in men’s basketball, beating Spain 107-100 on Sunday at soldout O2 Arena. But this was a one-point game in the fourth quarter, and had it not been for 30 points from Kevin Durant or Spain’s Pau Gasol getting poked in the eye or Spain’s coach suddenly deciding it would be a good idea to play a defense they hadn’t practiced, who knows what happens.

Jerry Colangelo knew that, though, when he agreed to reorganize USA Basketball after the embarrassment of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where they lost three times and got a bronze. It would be a program now, not a team. There would be training camps in the summers. There wouldn’t be a carousel of coaches. The players would make multi-year commitments. They would run offense. They would play defense.

“We made the commitment from then on to get better each year and to get the USA back to where it belongs,” James said. “We all share the same traits. It has been a long road for USA Basketball, and I’m just glad I’m put in this position to have something to do with putting us back on top.”

They are there. Barely.

It took probably their best overall game of the tournament, and extended minutes for Coach Mike Kryzyewski’s starters – in a game they were favored to win by 20.5 points and you had to wager $4,600 in Las Vegas sports books to win $100. Durant played 38 of 40 minutes, Chris Paul 32, James 30, Kobe Bryant 27 after averaging 15 here.

They shot 49 percent.

They went 7 of 10 on threes in the first quarter.

They didn’t have a turnover until the second quarter.

They finished with seven steals.

“Spain, they didn’t quit,” Anthony said.

“We got them nervous,” Spain guard Rudy Fernandez said.

The Americans led 59-58 at the half and 83-82 at the end of the third quarter, and 85-84 early in the fourth. Then Paul hit a three, then Durant hit a three, then Bryant (17 points) was fouled on a three.

Then the dagger: an uncontested drive and dunk by James (19 points) to make it 99-91.

“We had our chances,” said Los Angeles Lakers 7-foot-1 forward Pau Gasol, who scored 13 of his 24 points to open second half by continually posting up the smaller Americans. “We were right there pretty much the entire game. We let them get away in the fourth and we couldn’t get back.

“We knew we would make this very difficult for them. You have to play an almost perfect game against them for 40 minutes, or it will be very difficult. We were close but you can’t make mistakes.”

That included Spain coach Sergio Scariolo’s decision to leave Gasol’s brother, Marc, in the game with three fouls midway through the second quarter – only for him to get his fourth 34 seconds later. In international basketball, you get five.

And after playing a 2-3 matchup zone for most of the game, Scariolo suddenly got a wild hair in the fourth quarter and called for a box-and-one (four guys in a zone with the fifth assigned to Durant). Pau Gasol said they hadn’t practiced it.

His players seemed confused where to go, pointing fingers and scrambling to spots. It led to James’ thunderous dunk and several other open looks.

“They made us pay for our mistakes,” an irritated Pau Gasol said. “That was one of them.”

The Olympics began with talk about whether Kobe, LeBron and the crew were better than the legendary ’92 Dream Team. It ended the same way the 2008 Games did, with a nervous win against Spain.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” James said. “We didn't want it easy. A lot of teams have won gold easy. We didn’t want it that way. We’re a competitive team, and we love when it gets tight. That's when our will and determination kind of shows.”